81.   Putting new pressure on the South Korean government, religious groups here handed officials a huge stack of petitions on Tuesday calling for increased food aid to North Korea.

82.   Restoring food aid to North Korea, which is in desperate need after years of shortages and famine, is seen as a necessary first step toward diplomatic relations.

83.   Ross, spokesman for the United Nations World Food Program, said the flow of international food aid to Korea that followed devastating floods last August has stopped.

84.   Second, the food aid also gave the White House a powerful weapon in the propaganda campaign to convince Afghans that the United States wanted to help them.

85.   Russia depends on economic aid from the United States and Europe, including food aid this winter to help Russia through its economic crisis.

86.   Some people in the region see the American airdrops of food in Afghanistan as a sign the United States recognizes the necessity of combining food aid with military force.

87.   South Korea, however, is continuing to signal its doubts about the wisdom of unconditional food aid to the North.

88.   Some of those imports have come as food aid, while others have been imported through barter trade.

89.   So his wife Sharon works at Pizza Hut, and the family receives federal food aid.

90.   South Korea has offered food aid to the North, but the South has also been preoccupied with its own political troubles.